Remarks by a representative of the Russian delegation during the 10th session of the UNGA Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals on the topic of “Peaceful and non-violent societies, rule of law and capable institutions”
Distinguished Mr. Co-Chair,
The Russian delegation proceeds consistently from the assumption that efforts to formulate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for further consideration in UNGA should not go beyond the political agreements reached in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. The priority areas and cross-cutting issues to be considered in the course of SDG elaboration, are described in Section V of the “Rio+20” outcome document in a detailed and exhaustive manner. The issues of peaceful and non-violent societies, rule of law and capable institutions as well as peace and security and post-conflict peace-building are not among those.
Many issues mentioned in the sub-items of focus area 19 can hardly be transformed into measurable goals, targets and indicators. In particular, it is true for the concept of rule of law, with regard to which UN Member-States have not formulated a unified view and it is unclear what meaning it could get in the context of SDGs elaboration. We also note that focus area 19 address issues which pertain exclusively to internal affairs of sovereign states. Pushing these issues can politicize UN processes on sustainable development.
As a matter of principle, we are convinced that an extended interpretation of the concept of sustainable development by bringing in extraneous and/or not agreed and controversial elements (inter alia, rule of law, human security, peace and security) separately or in the form of the so-called “fourth dimension” would be non-constructive because it would hardly promote consensus.
Taking into account the said above, we believe it would be helpful if focus area 19 would be excluded from the set of themes to be considered by the SDG Open Working Group and in the course of the further UNGA process.
Thank you.
